Merchandise – Lo-tech Solutions To Hi-tech Problems

Lo-tech Solutions To Hi-tech Problems opens with the gloriously upbeat jazz of I Hate That You’re Living before heading into the album proper, a mix of acoustic and electronic instrumentation (hence the album’s title).

This album occasionally spills over with genius. It comes from all sides; the way a drum beat kicks in, a riff on an acoustic guitar, a lyric. Songs like Beautiful Morning For A Bad Day, Echolalia, Albino Rhino and Winter highlight this perfectly. The problem is that these flashes are all too brief and there is an over riding feeling that this album is not nearly as good as it could have been. Sometimes the drum machine doesn’t fit with the acoustic guitar, or the vocals are just slightly out of tune, or the mix is awful, or the verse isn’t very good. For every good moment there’s a bad one ready to come along and ruin it.

If Merchandise can smooth out the wrinkles they have a definite chance of cracking into the consciousness of a great number of people but for now this album just acts as a sketch of that future.